This invention concerns mounting arrangements and methods used in drive motors for automotive power seats of the type in which the seat is mounted on a pair of slide rail assemblies, and a drive motor is disposed therebetween to simultaneously drive a pair of right angle gear units, each mounted to an adjacent end of a respective slide rail. The prior method of assembling these components involved the use of a plurality of brackets individually installed using fasteners to secure the motor in place aligned with the gear units and to be restrained against rotation. Installation of the bracketry and fasteners necessary to maintain the components in accurate alignment has been a labor intensive task, adding to the manufacturing cost.
The drive motor has conventionally been equipped with two flex cables used as drive shafts, one on each end of the motor and driving a respective gear units.
Flex or “Bowden” cables are constructed using a heavy wire or cable core enclosed within a casing, and are widely used in this application since they allow considerable misalignment between the motor and gear units, but are noisy when operated at the moderately high motor speeds involved, i.e., 3000 rpm, typical for power seat motors. Lubrication must be packed into the casing to reduce cable noise and wear increasing the cost of this type of drive.
Flex cables are difficult to assemble since the core must be aligned and mated with a square receptacle in the gear unit while being hidden by the outer casing. In typical power seat installations, a second outer casing tube is often used to confine the flex cables. These assembly complications increase the cost to manufacture and install the power seat.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simplified mounting arrangement and an assembly method for a power seat drive motor which is quicker and easier to execute.